Exc: Five areas to be examined by PRSB as it sets standards for social care

Five areas of care will be examined by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) as it looks at developing standards for social care, Digital Health News can reveal.

NHS Digital commissioned the PRSB to create a national standard for social care in a bid to roll out successful projects more widely across the country.

As part of this the PRSB will host a series of webinars and focus groups focusing on five key areas including: important information a person would share with a carer; health and care information that care home staff need; information that local authorities will share with health and care professional; and information needed when referring a patient being discharged from hospital for care and support; and information needed when transferring a care home resident into hospital in an emergency.

They will run over a series of weeks in May.

The PRSB will use the information gathered in focus groups and webinars to develop a set of standards for social and healthcare professionals to follow when developing digital solutions.

Katie Thorn, digital engagement manager of the Registered Nursing Home Association and lead on the project, said: “With so many adults now using social care services in the UK, it’s vital that personal and medical information can be shared between all the people who are involved in a person’s care.

“By developing standards for information sharing we will be able to make this a reality, which will support services in working collaboratively and enable people to get the support they need in the community.”

During the first stage of the programme, PRSB will be working with different local areas across England to determine which social care situations require national standards to support better care.

It comes after NHS Digital revealed it was supporting 16 adult social care organisations across the UK in delivering innovative sues of technology to provide better care.

The organisations received £4.5m between them to enable them to roll out their digital projects on a wider scale as part of NHS Digital’s Social Care Digital Pathfinders grant.

The successful Digital Pathfinders will commence a 13-month implementation phase with projects predominantly looking at standardising information and developing digital ways of sharing that information between multiple health and care organisations.

Managed by NHS Digital, the grant supports products and services that have already been piloted in small local areas – with the view to implementing them on a larger scale.

PRSB is actively seeking people to be engaged in the webinars and focus groups. For more information on the focus groups and webinars, including dates, contact info@theprsb.org.